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'Kung fu soccer' game 'Caneball' gaining popularity

'Kung fu soccer' game 'Caneball' gaining popularity

It's a visually striking mix between volleyball and soccer, and it's a much loved pastime for many refugees settling into Australian life, and is now gaining quite a following in high school gyms in Canberra.

One-punch attack in Civic on New Year's in Canberra

The increasing prevalence of such attacks is not simply a frenzied storm whipped-up by the media; the problem is working out how to curb them. The problem is that Corbell's response sounds a great deal like inaction. The calls for increased penalties have come into this vacant space. Doing nothing is not an option. It should be possible to safely enjoy a simple night out in Canberra without wondering if someone will suddenly strike you from behind, leaving you stretched out on the ground, insensible to what's occurred and possibly brain-damaged or dead.

The vicious and final nature of the so-called "coward's punch" is reverberating through society. We have always had assaults and fist-fights and these can be deadly too. What's new is the nature of this particular attack. It's unexpected. A fist comes flying out-of-the-blue, from behind, and that's one reason why it is so very terrifying. The other is its finality. It's just a matter of chance how the victim's head hits the ground. It was just pure luck that the attack in Civic the other day wasn't fatal.

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We instinctively know that when someone sets out to strike the back of the head they're quite purposefully intending to smash the brain. The attack is, by its very nature, qualitatively different and this is why society is so horrified. It's not simply some kind of "moral panic", where the media busily whips up a fury over something that's always been going on.

Determining why these attacks are causing such outrage doesn't require a PhD thesis, no matter how interesting this might be. The equation is simple. People expect that they, and their children, should be able to walk safely down the street without living in fear that an apparently unprovoked attack will leave them lying face down in the gutter.

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That's why we're not reassured by the debate so far. Current measures obviously aren't enough to stop this form of assault: the number of attacks is growing. Secondly, society clearly wants to send a signal in the form of harsher penalties. This may not have any effect in stopping the assaults but then again, perhaps they might. Wouldn't you want to do everything you could to prevent these attacks?

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I'd be thrilled if other changes were more effective in stopping the violence; but the point seems to be that currently, Corbell's cupboard is bare. Isn't it worth trying everything, particularly when we know so much more now about the consequences of such assaults?

Attorney-General Simon Corbell said it was clearly unrealistic to expect children who were just finding their feet as adults to come forward and pursue a civil claim for abuse. Photo: Elesa Kurtz

The one-punch attack is designed to take someone out. The way the victim falls will determine if they survive. That's chance. And that's why, unless the system is reformed, the penalty for such attacks will depend on fluke.

Attempts to measure what damage has been caused by one-punch assault remain arbitrary and inexact, though advances in neuroscience over the past two decades may change matters. The law remains fixed, however. It's still back in the dark ages as far as neurology is concerned. That's understandable, because this is an emerging field. However it's also why there's a need to at least attempt to engage with the new knowledge that's coming from new scientific insights. Insisting that everything's OK just the way it is isn't an option.

Increasing the penalties for such attacks won't, by themselves, be enough to change behaviour and stop these assaults, but it will send a signal. Doing this seems far more worthwhile than standing back and waiting for the problem to fix itself, because that's not going to happen. There's an urgent need to address this issue and that's why it's been getting so much media attention, and not just in Canberra. This has become a bigger problem that seems to be located at a very elemental level in our society. Something must be fuelling these crippling attacks and encouraging this type of random violence.

That's why it's wrong to attempt to insist that the sense of outrage accompanying one-punch attacks is being manufactured. Criminal justice reform is required. Now.